


The Winter Party

by MarshmarrowSans



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Almost Kiss, Almost Love Confession, But mostly just goofing off, Cause that's what you sign up for with Sans, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Memes and cringe, No established romance but they have a MOMENT, Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader and Sans are friends, Shy Sans (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26489044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarshmarrowSans/pseuds/MarshmarrowSans
Summary: "you should come to our winter shindig," he said.  "it'll be fun," he said.Apparently your friend Sans didn't account for drunken, raunchy holiday carol mad libs or whatever other inevitable chaos he and his quirky friends always brought with him.  But you manage to steal a moment together anyways.
Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 19
Kudos: 112





	The Winter Party

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! This fic has prerequisite reading. Please, please, please check out the Undertale alarm clock Winter dialogue. This fic takes place during the winter party they all talk about. You will not regret it: https://undertale.com/alarmclock/#characters

Entropy. Definition: lack of order or predictability. Synonyms include chaos, disorder… and this off-the-rails Winter party your monster friends were throwing.  
  
They were excited to be on the surface. This was their first Winter out in the world, under the sun. You got that. By all means, they had the right to bust out the champagne, turn the stereo up to max, and party ‘till their literal or metaphorical pants fell off.  
  
But where you expected champagne, there was MTT-Brand Super Adult Winter Eggnog. And where you expected a boombox, there was--  
  
“Make my wish come true! All I want for Christmas… is…”  
  
“… BIIIG BOOTY BITCHES! _FUHUHUHU_!”  
  
… Well, there was Toriel and Undyne, knocking back the ‘nog and positively riddling holiday classics with some not-so-classic lyrical substitutions. What a soundtrack to the night.  
  
There had also been the vague sounds of an epic, explosive anime battle in the general direction of the kitchen about a half hour earlier, but that was neither here nor there.  
  
Eggnog in hand, you navigated around a lonely, detached robot leg on the floor, turning and walking backwards a couple of steps to contemplate it, before dropping on to the couch next to Sans, immobile. The two of you stared out into the rest of the party, a pair of confused and slightly terrified boulders being washed over by the roaring tides of the pandemonium around you.  
  
“Haha! Now, allow me to fill in the lyrics this time!”  
  
“Chyeah, okay! _There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found, for when they placed it on his--_ ”  
  
Undyne gestured emphatically for Toriel to take her cue, but in that same moment, so quickly that it was clear that Undyne would have been interrupted had she tried to continue, the goat monster pointed excitedly back at her and ad libbed.  
  
“Dick!”  
  
“TORIEL?! … CORRECT ANSWER!!!”  
  
You chuckled and shook your head as they performed what was allegedly a double high five, made slow and sloppy by all the MTT-brand merriment that was clearly flowing through their veins. Then you angled your body, and your attention, towards Sans. The only other calm in the storm. “So. You gonna go cover your brother’s ears, or…?”  
  
“okay. first of all? this is hilarious and who am i to deny him that. second? he doesn’t have ears. third? i’m more of a hands-off approach kinda guy, in case you haven’t noticed.” He performed the world’s laziest jazz hands at you, complete with his signature that-was-a-pun wink. “and last but not least, do i look like i can reach?”  
  
You gave him an exaggerated once-over, as if sizing him up for the first time, nodding contemplatively.  
  
“I could give you a boost.”  
  
“but points one through three still stand.”  
  
“Mmhmm.”  
  
You looked away from each other and back out to the party for a moment. You took a long sip from your own mug of MTT-Brand Super Adult Eggnog. Sans whipped out a comb and idly scraped it down his skull. Toriel and Undyne had just got to the part about six geese a-shitting. It was stupid, but… the two of you both laughed at it, your own laughter breathless and snorting, and his, low and warm.  
  
It was… a nice laugh. Different from his usual. Very real. Your head swam a little, and you didn’t think it was because the eggnog was all _that_ strong. You set it down on the side table anyways.  
  
“So.” You caught his attention again, pulling your legs up criss-cross-applesauce on the couch. He appraised your way of sitting, then mirrored it as you continued speaking. “I wasn’t here for the hockey match. But Alphys tells me you’ve got some _moves_ …” You bopped your head and shimmied your shoulders in a pale imitation of dancing. It got the point across. It also made Sans laugh again, a bit higher-pitched and less self-conscious this time. Which was… nice, times two.  
  
“moves? what moves? _these_ moves?”  
  
He remained seated, but limply, unenthusiastically dabbed with one arm, then the other. You laughed along with him, heat rushing to your cheeks for some god-forsaken reason.  
  
“No, it was more like…” you heaved yourself to your feet, swaying, “ _these_ moves.” You stood in front of him, and did your best rendition of the Fortnite Default Dance. The feet-shuffling part turned out to be harder than it looked. But hey. You nailed the pointing and crossing your arms part. Sans watched you embarrass yourself for slightly longer than what most would consider to be humane.  
  
“ah. see, ‘cause alphys told _me_ that was cringe culture.”  
  
“Oh, it is.” You offered him your hand, and as he hesitated, you could practically see the metaphorical gears turning in that big, adorable round skull of his, before he met your eyes with a grin that was more than the one he always had stuck on his face.  
  
He slipped his hand into yours, and purred, “i thought you’d never ask.”  
  
And thusly, the two boring boulders were swept away in the current, so to speak, caught up in the chaos and merriment and revelry. In other words, you and Sans stood out in the middle of the party and _aggressively_ default-danced at each other, almost as if with a grudge, or embroiled in a life-or-death dance-off. First, the giggles bubbled up. Then you both began to chuckle. Then laugh. God, how you made each other laugh. You moved in closer to him, as close as you could without fear of smacking him in the middle of your meme-fueled flailing.  
  
“We’re really no better than the rest of them, are we?”  
  
He gasped for breath before speaking, “never said we were.”  
  
You sensed that he was about to stop before the joke grew any more stale than it already was, and caught him by surprise by catching his hand in yours and pulling him effortlessly into a ballroom dance position. He faltered and stood there awkwardly, out of his element, only moving along with you once you started up a vague swaying motion.  
  
“oh. ah. i don’t know this one. how does it start?”  
  
You chuckled, taking the hand that he’d left dangling at his side and positioning it on your shoulder. “You’re already doing it.”  
  
“i am? huh. no wonder i impressed you. ‘sfar as dancing goes, your bar is very low.”  
  
You scoffed, pretending to be offended. “Heyyy… true.”  
  
It was only as silence fell between the two of you that you even realized the tension you’d created. There wasn’t any real music to sway to. Just the drunken screeching and laughter of your friends around you. Sans’ movements were stiff and unpracticed, his cheeks glowing a light blue hue, probably from embarrassment. His feet shuffled along, but not in time with your own. You probably looked like absolute idiots from a hypothetical third person perspective. And yet, as you took a good look at his face, you couldn’t help but realize…  
  
“… You look happy.”  
  
Sans did what he always did instead of talking about his feelings. He deflected, this time by momentarily dropping your hand to draw a circle around his face with his finger and quip, “kinda got a resting smiley face goin’ on here. so.” Then he placed his hand back in yours, without seeming to give it a second thought, just as easily as he’d usually slip it into one of his pockets. Like it was the natural spot for that hand to rest in, even if the rest of the whole dancing thing was anything but natural for him.  
  
You rolled your eyes at him, and persisted, “No, I mean… Look. When you’re having fun? When you laugh? I guess you don’t know it, but you get this look in your eyes. They say a smile isn’t real unless it reaches your eyes. So… that’s how I know it’s real.”  
  
You moved both hands to his shoulders, and held him at arm’s length, drinking in his flustered expression. You could tell he wasn’t used to anyone paying that much attention to him. And you… kinda thrived off giving it to him.  
  
“Do you know how long I knew you, before I saw that for the first time? It took over a month. And now, lately, I see it pretty much every day. _Especially_ today. Like, ten times today. I just wanted to let you know, I’m… I’m proud of you, Sans. I know how hard it can be just to find happiness.”  
  
He'd held out his arms aimlessly, until you said those words, he remembered himself, and he held on to your forearms. “… i dunno. some days, i still…” He just frowned instead of finishing that thought. You only cut in once you were sure he wasn’t going to elaborate.  
  
“There are always gonna be _some days_. But it’s not _all days_ or even _most days_ anymore, is it?”  
  
He paused, then nodded. “nah. you’re right. it’s not.”  
  
“See? Progress. Proud of you.”  
  
And amidst all the tension and uncertainty, through all the awkwardness and absurdity… you saw that look in his eyes, as he smiled up at you in that moment.  
  
“… hey, so. cue awkward transition. but speaking of happiness and stuff. things that, uh, make me do the eye-smile, or whatever. i’ve been thinking…”  
  
Whatever he’d been about to say trailed off into a heavy, irritated sigh as, after a long and inexplicable absence, Papyrus quite literally came crashing back into the scene, knocking the side table, and your eggnog resting atop it, over on to the floor.  
  
“SANS! HUMAN FRIEND! WE’VE GOT TROUBLE! LARGE GOAT MONSTER TROUBLE.”  
  
You both stepped back from each other, self-consciously opening up a respectable amount of space, as if to compensate for all the room you’d just realized you _hadn’t_ left for Jesus while dancing moments earlier. Papyrus didn’t seem to notice a thing.  
  
“SHE IS SCARING ALPHYS WITH HER LOUD CURSED WORDS AND HER INCESSANT ATTEMPTS TO DANCE WITH HER. UNDYNE HEROICALLY TRIED TO RESTRAIN HER ON HER OWN, OF COURSE! BUT… I BELIEVE IT WAS MISINTERPRETED AS A REQUEST TO CUDDLE. AND SHE FELL VICTIM…”  
  
From the other room, you heard Undyne’s voice: “Ngahhh! Your arms! They’re too burly and fluffy!”  
  
“… SO I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SAYING THIS, BUT SANS, WE REQUIRE YOUR BLANKET BURRITO EXPERTISE! THE HUMAN CAN BE OUR MUSCLE, AS WE DON’T HAVE ANY. I THINK WE SHOULD PUT HER IN THE GARAGE TO RECOVER. WHERE IT IS DARK, AND QUIET, AND LOCKABLE FROM THE OUTSIDE.”  
  
“sounds like a plan, paps.” Sans rubbed his hands together, as if to warm them up for the task ahead of him. “i’ll get the blanket. biggest one i can find.”  
  
And as he often did, he walked off in the opposite direction of where you knew the blankets were. You expected him to, as usual, return in just a moment with the requested item.  
  
But it took him a little longer this time. Because, as he gathered in his arms a blanket that was a good two or three times his size, he stood there for a moment, just hugging it. He thought about how long he’d been free from the underground.  
  
He thought about all the sunrises and sunsets he’d witnessed. All the constellations he’d spotted.  
  
He thought about all his friends, and how they’d found their own happiness.  
  
He thought about the day he'd had.  
  
He thought about you, and the question he’d almost worked up the nerve to ask you.  
  
And even though nobody was there to see it, he smiled, warmly, in that way that reached his eyes.


End file.
